Indiana Notes

[dfwmapper]

someone finally fixed lafayette on google maps!

The only possible option was for Google themselves to fix it, because Map Maker has broken edits blocking any changes to add or remove road names.

Now if it could just be fixed by INDOT to not run a US highway over a road that is pretty much the worst possible choice for passing through an area instead of following the goal of the US highway system and taking the best possible route between points, either remaining signed along Sagamore, or following I-65 north to SR 18 or US 24.

[silverback1065]

any updates on the new downtown "smart" streets project in south bend?

[ysuindy]

Funny you should ask.  Saw this story earlier today

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/main-street-set-to-open-to-two-way-traffic-in/article_47bb549f-c260-5184-8c14-2d068eda19b1.html

Both Michigan and Main open to two way traffic from Sample Street to the South on Friday.  Both had been open to two traffic from Ewing to the South.

Main will open completely to two way traffic on Saturday

No word in the story on when two way traffic on Michigan will be complete.

[silverback1065]

Anyone up there willing to post some pictures?

[nwi_navigator_1181]

Updates from a local front.

With the exception of a few ramps, work on I-65 between 61st Avenue and I-80/94 has been suspended for the winter. The project was expected to finish by the end of this month, but a tragic accident involving a construction worker delayed the project for a few weeks. The ramps that were closed at the time will reopen soon, while all the lanes have been shifted to the original positions. Widening work between US 30 and Indiana 2 is to begin next spring, as scheduled. (The goal was amended to Indiana 10, but INDOT and the contractors agreed to scale it back to Indiana 2 to ensure higher quality work.)

Phase I of I-94 restoration should be wrapping up shortly. All that remains is rumble strip installation on the shoulders. Very nicely done, with a unique striping method for acceleration/deceleration lanes (at least, unique to Northwest Indiana): instead of the standard dashed lines to mark lanes, they use very short dashes in rapid succession from the lane's start to the gore (or from the merging point of the gore to the lane's termination for entering traffic). I wonder if that will be continued practice for future projects. I applaud this if so.

The Norfolk Southern portion of the County Line Road/Indiana 130 intersection improvement project has all but wrapped up. It was still closed as of Wednesday, but was striped. County Line Road has the benefit of left turn signals, while Indiana 130 traffic will have the benefit of a constant green light, along with "NO LEFT/RIGHT TURN" signs that light up, in the event of an oncoming train (triggered by the modified railroad crossing signals). Northbound County Line Road traffic has an extra traffic light in front of the railroad crossing should drivers be stuck behind them.

[nwi_navigator_1181]

Updates:

The County Line Road/Indiana 130 intersection is now fully open. There may be landscaping work to be done in the spring, but traffic will be unaffected.

In more important good news, two major ramps will reopen this Friday, just in time to keep Thanksgiving traffic flowing. The Indiana Toll Road ramps to both Indiana 49 (exit 31) and the Borman Expressway (the Lake Station interchange, Exit 21) will be opened after months of rehabilitation work. This should take a lot of pressure off the Interstate 65 ramp (exit 17) and the Portage/Willowcreek Road ramp (exit 24) as traffic is supposed to swell in the coming days.

On a more local note, the final phase of the 61st Avenue modernization project in Hobart is nearing its end. All major restructuring is finished; the last few days will be devoted to curbing, striping, landscaping, and adding guard rails to the new bridge. New features include a roundabout at Wisconsin street (with four spokes, but only three are usable since the newest spoke simply dead ends), a landscaped median, LED lighting, and center turn lanes where applicable. Like all other local projects, it's set for completion before Thanksgiving.

[silverback1065]

I've heard INDOT has resurrected SR 329 in logansport, can anyone confirm this and where the start/end is?

[NWI_Irish96]

I've heard INDOT has resurrected SR 329 in logansport, can anyone confirm this and where the start/end is?

Drove through there Wednesday.  The very short stretch of Burlington Ave between where IN 29 veers off to meet US 24/35 and where IN 25 exits off US 24/35 to go through town is now signed as IN 329. 

[silverback1065]

I've heard INDOT has resurrected SR 329 in logansport, can anyone confirm this and where the start/end is?

Drove through there Wednesday.  The very short stretch of Burlington Ave between where IN 29 veers off to meet US 24/35 and where IN 25 exits off US 24/35 to go through town is now signed as IN 329.

is the old us 24/35 segment still signed as monticello road?  Tried to add 329 back to google maps, but map maker is garbage and won't let me, looking forward to its demise in march

[NWI_Irish96]

Passed under old 24/35 on 25, so I have no idea how it's signed. 

[US 41]

INDOT has seriously got to do something about I-70 between Terre Haute and Indy. There is always perpetual construction and you always run into a traffic jam. Honestly you're better off taking US 40. I'd fully support widening I-70 to 3 lanes each direction between TH and Indy in exchange for making it a toll road. It needs done somehow.

[PurdueBill]

I've heard INDOT has resurrected SR 329 in logansport, can anyone confirm this and where the start/end is?

Drove through there Wednesday.  The very short stretch of Burlington Ave between where IN 29 veers off to meet US 24/35 and where IN 25 exits off US 24/35 to go through town is now signed as IN 329.

is the old us 24/35 segment still signed as monticello road?  Tried to add 329 back to google maps, but map maker is garbage and won't let me, looking forward to its demise in march

Drove by there a week ago and the exit signage for Monticello Road is still there on US24/35 west/northbound.  The old stretch of road is Monticello Road at least to INDOT's signage, anyway.

It is still weird seeing that dual carriageway ahead of you and peeling left, not using it.  Not something you expect to see in a place like Logansport for some reason.

[silverback1065]

I've heard INDOT has resurrected SR 329 in logansport, can anyone confirm this and where the start/end is?

Drove through there Wednesday.  The very short stretch of Burlington Ave between where IN 29 veers off to meet US 24/35 and where IN 25 exits off US 24/35 to go through town is now signed as IN 329.

is the old us 24/35 segment still signed as monticello road?  Tried to add 329 back to google maps, but map maker is garbage and won't let me, looking forward to its demise in march

Drove by there a week ago and the exit signage for Monticello Road is still there on US24/35 west/northbound.  The old stretch of road is Monticello Road at least to INDOT's signage, anyway.

It is still weird seeing that dual carriageway ahead of you and peeling left, not using it.  Not something you expect to see in a place like Logansport for some reason.

they should have removed it

[silverback1065]

INDOT has seriously got to do something about I-70 between Terre Haute and Indy. There is always perpetual construction and you always run into a traffic jam. Honestly you're better off taking US 40. I'd fully support widening I-70 to 3 lanes each direction between TH and Indy in exchange for making it a toll road. It needs done somehow.

us 40 is usually the better choice if traffic is horrible and you aren't in a hurry.  they do plan on widening it to 6 lanes in about 500 yrs or so

[PurdueBill]

they should have removed it

I don't know why they didn't narrow it down to 2 lanes that would meet the Monticello Road "ramp".  There would be fewer bridges to maintain, less snow to plow....

They even left the BGSs in place for the former US 24/35 turn at SR 29--they basically walked away from it.

[silverback1065]

they should have removed it

I don't know why they didn't narrow it down to 2 lanes that would meet the Monticello Road "ramp".  There would be fewer bridges to maintain, less snow to plow....

They even left the BGSs in place for the former US 24/35 turn at SR 29--they basically walked away from it.

I hate it when INDOT does that, they do it all the time, look at old sr 43 in west lafayette, they just removed their shields and left the rest of the signs up.

[silverback1065]

drove by the smokey row road (136th st) keystone pkwy interchange, the ramp going from nb keystone to smokey row/ 136th will be metered.  It's not functioning yet, but it's a hawk signal, which is a weird choice, since those are only used for ped crossings in between intersections.

[ysuindy]

on a different note, i fear the new 106th st interchange will seriously fuck up traffic on 69/37.  I hope they force traffic trying to go north on 69 to stay in the c/d to 116th and 37.

Looking at the project diagram it shows a solid white line separating the traffic bound for 116th starting prior to the merge of the 106th entering traffic.  So I'd say yes on your c/d question.

https://secure.in.gov/indot/files/GFD_ProjectLocationMap.pdf

Looks like they are getting close to opening the 106th Street exit on I-69.  I drove through tonight and all the barriers along 69 seem to have been removed.  I came through about 8:00 p.m. so very dark and I may have missed a few.

iAs noted, It looks like there will be no barrier to stop you from entering northbound off 106th street and directly moving over to the northbound 69 lanes, although traffic will likely prevent that.  The overhead signs at the start the c/d of exit 205 include one lane marked as North 37 TO I-69 North.  I would guess there will be a rash of near misses (and quite a few not misses) until motorists get used to the setup.  I will have my head on a swivel moving through there.

[cjw2001]

drove by the smokey row road (136th st) keystone pkwy interchange, the ramp going from nb keystone to smokey row/ 136th will be metered.  It's not functioning yet, but it's a hawk signal, which is a weird choice, since those are only used for ped crossings in between intersections.

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/00067/000678.pdf

[cjw2001]

on a different note, i fear the new 106th st interchange will seriously fuck up traffic on 69/37.  I hope they force traffic trying to go north on 69 to stay in the c/d to 116th and 37.

Looking at the project diagram it shows a solid white line separating the traffic bound for 116th starting prior to the merge of the 106th entering traffic.  So I'd say yes on your c/d question.

https://secure.in.gov/indot/files/GFD_ProjectLocationMap.pdf

Looks like they are getting close to opening the 106th Street exit on I-69.  I drove through tonight and all the barriers along 69 seem to have been removed.  I came through about 8:00 p.m. so very dark and I may have missed a few.

iAs noted, It looks like there will be no barrier to stop you from entering northbound off 106th street and directly moving over to the northbound 69 lanes, although traffic will likely prevent that.  The overhead signs at the start the c/d of exit 205 include one lane marked as North 37 TO I-69 North.  I would guess there will be a rash of near misses (and quite a few not misses) until motorists get used to the setup.  I will have my head on a swivel moving through there.

I just reworked the northbound ramp connection on Google Maps to make it clear that northbound traffic entering from 106th must  stay on the c/d and not enter directly into I69.   At least that way navigation directions shouldn't contribute to a potential problem.  (Changes published in mapmaker, won't show up on the public map til tomorrow.)

[ysuindy]

on a different note, i fear the new 106th st interchange will seriously fuck up traffic on 69/37.  I hope they force traffic trying to go north on 69 to stay in the c/d to 116th and 37.

Looking at the project diagram it shows a solid white line separating the traffic bound for 116th starting prior to the merge of the 106th entering traffic.  So I'd say yes on your c/d question.

https://secure.in.gov/indot/files/GFD_ProjectLocationMap.pdf

Looks like they are getting close to opening the 106th Street exit on I-69.  I drove through tonight and all the barriers along 69 seem to have been removed.  I came through about 8:00 p.m. so very dark and I may have missed a few.

iAs noted, It looks like there will be no barrier to stop you from entering northbound off 106th street and directly moving over to the northbound 69 lanes, although traffic will likely prevent that.  The overhead signs at the start the c/d of exit 205 include one lane marked as North 37 TO I-69 North.  I would guess there will be a rash of near misses (and quite a few not misses) until motorists get used to the setup.  I will have my head on a swivel moving through there.

I just reworked the northbound ramp connection on Google Maps to make it clear that northbound traffic entering from 106th must  stay on the c/d and not enter directly into I69.   At least that way navigation directions shouldn't contribute to a potential problem.  (Changes published in mapmaker, won't show up on the public map til tomorrow.)

Saw the set up a little better in the daylight this morning as I was on 69 Southbound. .  Starting just before the 106th northbound entrance ramp reaches I-69, the two right lanes on 69 North are separated by a double white line - looks to be maybe a foot apart.  The two overhead gantries each have a square white sign that says "Do Not Cross Double White Line".  There is one just past 106th and one further down near the 116th Street exit.

[cjw2001]

I just reworked the northbound ramp connection on Google Maps to make it clear that northbound traffic entering from 106th must  stay on the c/d and not enter directly into I69.   At least that way navigation directions shouldn't contribute to a potential problem.  (Changes published in mapmaker, won't show up on the public map til tomorrow.)

The update to separate the c/d lane is now live on Google Maps and reflected in navigation directions.   It will take a week or two for the traffic view to catch up.

[silverback1065]

that's good to know.  I feel like a jersey barrier would have been better though.  I hope they plan to mill and resurface the interstate, they've been moving the lines so much the old lines that have been removed are making things confusing. 

[wanderer2575]

they should have removed it

I don't know why they didn't narrow it down to 2 lanes that would meet the Monticello Road "ramp".  There would be fewer bridges to maintain, less snow to plow....

They even left the BGSs in place for the former US 24/35 turn at SR 29--they basically walked away from it.

Why remove the BGSs?  They still correctly point to the routes.

[silverback1065]

they should have removed it

I don't know why they didn't narrow it down to 2 lanes that would meet the Monticello Road "ramp".  There would be fewer bridges to maintain, less snow to plow....

They even left the BGSs in place for the former US 24/35 turn at SR 29--they basically walked away from it.

Why remove the BGSs?  They still correctly point to the routes.

Because they fall into disrepair (the city never maintains them), also the one I was referring to is particularly annoying because the old 43 bgs now just says "Brookston" which makes you think that you're in Brookston.